Andrew is a senior transatlantic fellow at the German Marshall Fund of the United States. He has worked on foreign and economic policy issues in Beijing, Brussels, London, and Washington D.C., where he is now based. He is the author of the book The China-Pakistan Axis.

Following Brexit and the election of President Trump, Europeans see not just the liberal order but Enlightenment values under attack. With the EU facing an assortment of counter-Enlightenment threats, from Russia to populist illiberalism, new geopolitical dividing lines are opening up, and Europeans are rethinking their relationship with China - an illiberal power but not a counter-Enlightenment power.

The relationship between Beijing and Islamabad is filled with intrigue, rumors and declarations of undying friendship. The China-Pakistan Axis uncovers decades of geopolitical rivalry, nuclear exchanges and dealings with the Taliban.

Andrew Small, a policy researcher at the German Marshall Fund of the United States in Washington, explores China’s ties with Pakistan in a new book that delves into the relationship’s history, the Chinese origins of Pakistan’s nuclear weapons, extremism in the two countries and how the future might develop as the United States recedes from Pakistan and Afghanistan. Jane Perlez, diplomatic correspondent for the New York Times, interviews Andrew on his book, The China-Pakistan Axis.

Beijing sought to take a neutral stance in the stand-off between Russia and the West over the crisis in Ukraine. The question is not whether Beijing will tilt definitively toward one or other party but the extent to which China will prove to be an enabling or a constraining factor for different facets of Western and Russian policy.

China’s public offer to mediate peace talks between the Taliban and the Afghan government marks a notable departure in Chinese foreign policy. It is the first time Beijing is taking a genuine leadership role, on its own initiative, on a geopolitical issue both sensitive and significant.